WumpusRat

I've seen quite a lot of odd behavior out of the RNG. Not odd as in "bugged", just odd as in "wow, wtf". Like having 75% to hit and landing 3 swings out of 10, and only then because the streak breaker forced them to hit. Nearly losing a fight to a white-con lieutenant from full health was making me quite peeved, I'll tell you what. :) Or fighting a couple of arachnos flunkies at 8th level or so, and their shotguns with like 30% to knockdown on each attack knocked me down every. Single. Hit. I was on my butt for like 70% of the fight, and nearly lost because of it. Or jumping into a pack of mobs on my brute with 50% defense (and no debuffs), and instantly face-planting, because every mob rolled 5% or less. Or my bot/ff mastermind having the bots running around at capped defense, and having a mob obliterate all my tier-1's one after the other because it rolled 5% or less with each attack in succession. Stuff like that isn't common, but it makes for some serious "wtf?!" moments.

I'll keep it in mind if it happens again. At this point I've already got about 8 hours invested in rebuilding the base, so I may as well just finish the new one. :)

I read the comics, and while it was interesting at times, the fact that Garth Ennis REALLY hates superheroes was far too blatant on every page. There wasn't a single decent person among any of the superheroes. Like, none. They were ALL deviants, drug addicts, sex addicts, pedophiles, rapists, etc. Every single one of them. It's not really to show "what would happen to superpowered beings", it's to take a dump on the superhero genre. Sure, if superpowers were real you'd have some asshats who'd get powers. But you'd also have people honestly trying to do good. Not this "everybody with powers is 100% corrupt and scummy" stuff Ennis writes.

Yeah, the problem with just setting them up as a coalition is that I couldn't use any of the storage in the already-built base, and couldn't edit it unless I switched characters. Bleh. Guess I'm going to just have to recreate everything.

Okay, spent all day yesterday building a base on a character, only to realize I'd made a dumb typo in the supergroup name. Since apparently you can't rename a supergroup (blah!), my only option is to leave the supergroup and remake it. However, that would consign all the work I did building the base to oblivion. I've heard (possibly rumors) that /demorecord can be used to "rebuild" a base? Is this true? Like taking down all the information about it, and then loading it up and poofing the base back into existence again on a new character (or the same one, in this case, with just a different SG name). Is this true? I'd really appreciate any help, because the only other real option is spending another 8-10 hours remaking everything from scratch...

Usually if I see someone fighting a GM alone, I'll sit and watch for a little bit to see how they're doing. If they seem to be able to solo it, I'll ask if they mind if I help out (because merits are good). Usually I get either a "sure, go for it" or occasionally "not yet, I want to see if I can actually solo it". I know back on live when I first finished my GM-soloing troller (ill/rad with perma hasten/AM/PA), I was running around soloing GMs and seeing how I fared. Once or twice I asked someone to wait to see if I could solo it, and if I got it down to less than 30% or so I knew the remaining health wouldn't have been a problem, so I'd let them know it was fine to jump in too.

Okay. I'll figure out which of my "heroic" villains would offer to join up, then send an application letter to you either tonight when I get home (if I'm awake enough) or tomorrow morning, and we can figure out a time to get together. :)

Twist my arm, why don'tcha! :) Most of my "heroic villain" characters are pretty low level at the moment, as I constantly come up with new concepts, make them, play them to like 6-7, then end up going "ooh, but what about THIS concept..." and run off to make another one. Would the interviews you were mentioning be IC, or OOC, or both? I have a couple of characters in mind I might wanna "try out" with. :)

The power effect for Cauterizing Aura really needs a minfx option. While a lot of powers you can set it to "dark" and then go for a really pale graphic, which solves some problems, CA doesn't work that way. It has two separate power glows, one being around your character, and the other pulsing at your feet. If you set the one around your character to be pale/almost invisible, it turns the pulses around your feet bright, glaring white. And given that it goes off every single second, it becomes really annoying. Especially when you're hovering. Either set it so that the pulses are the same color as the aura around you (ie, you can make it almost invisible), or just slap a nofx option on it please. I want to play my fire/fire blaster, but having to stare at this constant, pulsing graphic is obnoxious, and gives me a headache.

I'd totally be down for it, but my work schedule makes it hard to really organize with a group that operates on "normal" time. I work 4pm - midnight PST, and get tuesdays and wednesdays off, rather than the actual weekend. Otherwise I'd love to join up. I have tons of characters that would work as a "heroic villain".

You guys all suck. I was happily thinking "well obviously I'm going to just go /TA with my archer, since that makes the most sense!" But nooooo. I had to read this thread. Now I'm having QUESTIONS. I'm starting to wonder if I should go /ice instead. Or /NRG. Blah! Blah, I say. Maybe I'll just flip a coin. Or maybe I'll just make ALL of them. Hmph.

I tested a fully upgraded howler wolf (so no lick wounds) against a training dummy on the test server a couple weeks ago. The combat log is in another thread. There are several periods of time where the wolf is literally doing nothing. Like a 3-5 second window where it's not attacking, no casting a buff/debuff, etc. Their bite attack has, it says, a 3s cooldown, so there should never be a dead-spot that lasts more than 3 seconds. In a 60-second period the wolf did 21 things. If it was doing JUST bite, that would track, but it has three other abilities it was using as well. You know, come to think of it, I might revisit the test with a howler with NO upgrades, so all it has is the basic bite and lunge. See if it actually attacks more often. If it does, then we can try and narrow down what might be causing the dead zones.

"Welcome to your first day with Malta! We're excited to have you join the unit. We've heard a lot of good things about you, and we're going to help train you to be as dangerous as possible, since our mission is equally dangerous. So, our first stop is the armory, then to the testing range. We're going to get you up to speed on the BR-471 Bioelectric Rifle. Trust me, once you get the hang of it, you're going to love it. It's a devastating weapon, and one that can bring any of those capes to their knees with a single shot. The guys who pack them are nicknamed 'Sappers'." "...why did you just turn white? I assure you, the rumors that capes specifically target anyone with a BR-471 and try to murder them before the fight even starts is wholly over exaggerated."

I have a Dual Pistol/Martial blaster I'm working on now. She's up to 26th level, and chugging along pretty well. I don't have burst of speed slotted for damage, but rather just for cooldown, so I can use it as a quick repositioning tool. Freak boss getting in your face and ki burst didn't send him floating away like a soap bubble? Blip away and keep shooting from a new position. It definitely feels like an anime-style gunkata character, just hyperactively zipping around the battlefield and raining bullets on everyone. :)

I felt the same way when I got the game downloaded, booted it up and saw the login screen again. It's like I was home again. :)

Entangling Aura is a fantastic mitigation tool. Remember that because of bodyguard mode, your mastermind can potentially be an incredible tank. On my beast/nature MM I'll drop my healing zone under some mobs and jump into the pack of them, to soak up the alphas (especially any aoes) before my pets get there. Then the pets go to work, and all the mobs are getting locked down by the aura, providing immense mitigation to my pack. I put the Lockdown chance for +2 mag hold into it, so it snaps up lieutenants pretty quickly, and even pins down bosses in a couple seconds. The more they focus on me, the better, since it allows the damage to be spread out to all my pets, and the healing zone tops them off.

One of my latest little concept creations: Nebel ("Fog" in German), one of the original 5th Column from back in the 40's (and in my little backstory for her, the reason why a lot of their troops are named "Nebel Rifle", "Nebel Soldier", etc). Now she spends her time hunting down and murdering Council.

I didn't bother with any of the personal attacks on mine. I picked up Repulsion Bomb mostly because it's about the same damage (that is, not much) as photon grenade, doesn't require the weapon to be pulled out (aesthetics) and has a much better chance to stun, as well as knocking people down. The downside is that it's got a slightly longer animation time and slow travel time. But it's funny watching stuff get knocked down because the bomb hit 20 feet behind them.

I don't really use all that many binds myself. I've mapped the T key to have my pets attack (in defensive mode), shift-T to attack in aggressive mode, the middle mouse button to have them fall back in defensive mode and follow me, and shift-left click to make them move. Those are pretty much the only binds I (regularly) use. I have a couple of macros for making them talk and stuff, but that's something different. :)

Also ran a test of the necromancy zombie, who only has 4 attacks: Zombie Brawl (4s cd) Projectile Vomit (12s cd) (enchant) Zombie Vomit (12s cd) (enchant) Siphon Life (30s cd) (empower) 2019-06-29 12:17:33 Zombie: HIT Practice Dummy! Your Projectile Vomit power had a 95.00% chance to hit, you rolled a 0.01. 2019-06-29 12:17:33 Zombie: Zombie hits Practice Dummy with their Projectile Vomit for 0 points of toxic damage! 2019-06-29 12:17:35 Zombie: HIT Practice Dummy! Your Siphon Life power had a 95.00% chance to hit, you rolled a 21.84. 2019-06-29 12:17:35 Zombie: Zombie drains Practice Dummy for 0 points of negative energy damage reducing their chance to hit and healing itself! 2019-06-29 12:17:35 Zombie: Zombie heals itself for 114.99 points of health. 2019-06-29 12:17:37 Zombie: HIT Practice Dummy! Your Zombie Brawl power had a 95.00% chance to hit, you rolled a 20.59. 2019-06-29 12:17:37 Zombie: Zombie pounds Practice Dummy for 0 points of smashing damage! 2019-06-29 12:17:40 Zombie: HIT Practice Dummy! Your Zombie Vomit power had a 95.00% chance to hit, you rolled a 62.40. 2019-06-29 12:17:40 Zombie: Zombie hits Practice Dummy with their Zombie Vomit for 0 points of toxic damage! 2019-06-29 12:17:43 Zombie: HIT Practice Dummy! Your Zombie Brawl power had a 95.00% chance to hit, you rolled a 30.47. 2019-06-29 12:17:43 Zombie: Zombie pounds Practice Dummy for 0 points of smashing damage! 2019-06-29 12:17:47 Zombie: HIT Practice Dummy! Your Projectile Vomit power had a 95.00% chance to hit, you rolled a 8.29. 2019-06-29 12:17:47 Zombie: Zombie hits Practice Dummy with their Projectile Vomit for 0 points of toxic damage! 2019-06-29 12:17:48 Zombie: HIT Practice Dummy! Your Zombie Brawl power had a 95.00% chance to hit, you rolled a 31.48. 2019-06-29 12:17:48 Zombie: Zombie pounds Practice Dummy for 0 points of smashing damage! 2019-06-29 12:17:53 Zombie: HIT Practice Dummy! Your Zombie Brawl power had a 95.00% chance to hit, you rolled a 17.86. 2019-06-29 12:17:53 Zombie: Zombie pounds Practice Dummy for 0 points of smashing damage! 2019-06-29 12:17:56 Zombie: HIT Practice Dummy! Your Zombie Vomit power had a 95.00% chance to hit, you rolled a 86.91. 2019-06-29 12:17:56 Zombie: Zombie hits Practice Dummy with their Zombie Vomit for 0 points of toxic damage! 2019-06-29 12:17:58 Zombie: HIT Practice Dummy! Your Zombie Brawl power had a 95.00% chance to hit, you rolled a 20.66. 2019-06-29 12:17:58 Zombie: Zombie pounds Practice Dummy for 0 points of smashing damage! 2019-06-29 12:18:01 Zombie: HIT Practice Dummy! Your Projectile Vomit power had a 95.00% chance to hit, you rolled a 50.73. 2019-06-29 12:18:01 Zombie: Zombie hits Practice Dummy with their Projectile Vomit for 0 points of toxic damage! 2019-06-29 12:18:03 Zombie: HIT Practice Dummy! Your Zombie Brawl power had a 95.00% chance to hit, you rolled a 60.81. 2019-06-29 12:18:03 Zombie: Zombie pounds Practice Dummy for 0 points of smashing damage! 2019-06-29 12:18:07 Zombie: HIT Practice Dummy! Your Siphon Life power had a 95.00% chance to hit, you rolled a 62.36. 2019-06-29 12:18:07 Zombie: Zombie drains Practice Dummy for 0 points of negative energy damage reducing their chance to hit and healing itself! 2019-06-29 12:18:08 Zombie: Zombie heals itself for 114.99 points of health. 2019-06-29 12:18:09 Zombie: MISSED Practice Dummy!! Your Zombie Brawl power had a 95.00% chance to hit, you rolled a 95.58. 2019-06-29 12:18:11 Zombie: HIT Practice Dummy! Your Zombie Vomit power was forced to hit by streakbreaker. 2019-06-29 12:18:11 Zombie: Zombie hits Practice Dummy with their Zombie Vomit for 0 points of toxic damage! 2019-06-29 12:18:14 Zombie: HIT Practice Dummy! Your Zombie Brawl power had a 95.00% chance to hit, you rolled a 57.06. 2019-06-29 12:18:14 Zombie: Zombie pounds Practice Dummy for 0 points of smashing damage! 2019-06-29 12:18:17 Zombie: HIT Practice Dummy! Your Projectile Vomit power had a 95.00% chance to hit, you rolled a 20.67. 2019-06-29 12:18:17 Zombie: Zombie hits Practice Dummy with their Projectile Vomit for 0 points of toxic damage! 2019-06-29 12:18:19 Zombie: HIT Practice Dummy! Your Zombie Brawl power had a 95.00% chance to hit, you rolled a 10.28. 2019-06-29 12:18:19 Zombie: Zombie pounds Practice Dummy for 0 points of smashing damage! 2019-06-29 12:18:24 Zombie: HIT Practice Dummy! Your Zombie Brawl power had a 95.00% chance to hit, you rolled a 47.78. 2019-06-29 12:18:24 Zombie: Zombie pounds Practice Dummy for 0 points of smashing damage! 2019-06-29 12:18:27 Zombie: HIT Practice Dummy! Your Zombie Vomit power had a 95.00% chance to hit, you rolled a 60.29. 2019-06-29 12:18:27 Zombie: Zombie hits Practice Dummy with their Zombie Vomit for 0 points of toxic damage! 2019-06-29 12:18:29 Zombie: HIT Practice Dummy! Your Zombie Brawl power had a 95.00% chance to hit, you rolled a 56.54. 2019-06-29 12:18:29 Zombie: Zombie pounds Practice Dummy for 0 points of smashing damage! 2019-06-29 12:18:32 Zombie: HIT Practice Dummy! Your Projectile Vomit power had a 95.00% chance to hit, you rolled a 60.41. 2019-06-29 12:18:32 Zombie: Zombie hits Practice Dummy with their Projectile Vomit for 0 points of toxic damage! So over 60 seconds the zombie got 22 actions out, which given their lowest cooldown is 4s, is about right. It does seem like the beast mastery pets are simply bugged, and have some odd animation glitches built in.

Here's one for the ninja genin, for the same 60 second combat duration: 2019-06-29 11:56:46 Genin: HIT Practice Dummy! Your Exploding Shuriken power had a 95.00% chance to hit, you rolled a 80.84. 2019-06-29 11:56:46 Genin: Your Exploding Shuriken hits PlayerName for 0 points of Lethal Damage. 2019-06-29 11:56:48 Genin: HIT Practice Dummy! Your Shuriken power had a 95.00% chance to hit, you rolled a 86.18. 2019-06-29 11:56:48 Genin: Genin hits Practice Dummy with a Shuriken for 0 points of lethal damage! 2019-06-29 11:56:49 Genin: HIT Practice Dummy! Your Shuriken power had a 95.00% chance to hit, you rolled a 22.20. 2019-06-29 11:56:49 Genin: Genin hits Practice Dummy with a Shuriken for 0 points of lethal damage! 2019-06-29 11:56:51 Genin: HIT Practice Dummy! Your Storm Kick power had a 95.00% chance to hit, you rolled a 46.92. 2019-06-29 11:56:51 Genin: Genin hits Practice Dummy with a Storm Kick for 0 points of smashing damage! 2019-06-29 11:56:53 Genin: HIT Practice Dummy! Your Crane Kick power had a 95.00% chance to hit, you rolled a 87.01. 2019-06-29 11:56:53 Genin: Genin smashes Practice Dummy with their Crane Kick for 0 points of smashing damage! 2019-06-29 11:56:55 Genin: HIT Practice Dummy! Your Shuriken power had a 95.00% chance to hit, you rolled a 82.84. 2019-06-29 11:56:55 Genin: Genin hits Practice Dummy with a Shuriken for 0 points of lethal damage! 2019-06-29 11:56:57 Genin: HIT Practice Dummy! Your Shuriken power had a 95.00% chance to hit, you rolled a 21.15. 2019-06-29 11:56:57 Genin: Genin hits Practice Dummy with a Shuriken for 0 points of lethal damage! 2019-06-29 11:57:00 Genin: HIT Practice Dummy! Your Thunder Kick power had a 95.00% chance to hit, you rolled a 3.67. 2019-06-29 11:57:00 Genin: Genin strikes Practice Dummy with their Thunder Kick for 0 points of smashing damage! 2019-06-29 11:57:02 Genin: HIT Practice Dummy! Your Storm Kick power had a 95.00% chance to hit, you rolled a 43.03. 2019-06-29 11:57:02 Genin: Genin hits Practice Dummy with a Storm Kick for 0 points of smashing damage! 2019-06-29 11:57:04 Genin: HIT Practice Dummy! Your Shuriken power had a 95.00% chance to hit, you rolled a 84.57. 2019-06-29 11:57:04 Genin: Genin hits Practice Dummy with a Shuriken for 0 points of lethal damage! 2019-06-29 11:57:06 Genin: HIT Practice Dummy! Your Thunder Kick power had a 95.00% chance to hit, you rolled a 49.18. 2019-06-29 11:57:06 Genin: Genin strikes Practice Dummy with their Thunder Kick for 0 points of smashing damage! 2019-06-29 11:57:07 Genin: HIT Practice Dummy! Your Shuriken power had a 95.00% chance to hit, you rolled a 53.44. 2019-06-29 11:57:07 Genin: Genin hits Practice Dummy with a Shuriken for 0 points of lethal damage! 2019-06-29 11:57:09 Genin: HIT Practice Dummy! Your Crane Kick power had a 95.00% chance to hit, you rolled a 94.08. 2019-06-29 11:57:09 Genin: Genin smashes Practice Dummy with their Crane Kick for 0 points of smashing damage! 2019-06-29 11:57:09 Genin: Genin knocks Practice Dummy off their feet with their Crane Kick. 2019-06-29 11:57:12 Genin: HIT Practice Dummy! Your Storm Kick power had a 95.00% chance to hit, you rolled a 82.68. 2019-06-29 11:57:12 Genin: Genin hits Practice Dummy with a Storm Kick for 0 points of smashing damage! 2019-06-29 11:57:13 Genin: HIT Practice Dummy! Your Shuriken power had a 95.00% chance to hit, you rolled a 47.32. 2019-06-29 11:57:13 Genin: Genin hits Practice Dummy with a Shuriken for 0 points of lethal damage! 2019-06-29 11:57:15 Genin: HIT Practice Dummy! Your Thunder Kick power had a 95.00% chance to hit, you rolled a 86.83. 2019-06-29 11:57:15 Genin: Genin strikes Practice Dummy with their Thunder Kick for 0 points of smashing damage! 2019-06-29 11:57:17 Genin: HIT Practice Dummy! Your Exploding Shuriken power had a 95.00% chance to hit, you rolled a 79.37. 2019-06-29 11:57:17 Genin: Your Exploding Shuriken hits PlayerName for 0 points of Lethal Damage. 2019-06-29 11:57:18 Genin: HIT Practice Dummy! Your Shuriken power had a 95.00% chance to hit, you rolled a 36.45. 2019-06-29 11:57:18 Genin: Genin hits Practice Dummy with a Shuriken for 0 points of lethal damage! 2019-06-29 11:57:20 Genin: HIT Practice Dummy! Your Thunder Kick power had a 95.00% chance to hit, you rolled a 28.96. 2019-06-29 11:57:20 Genin: Genin strikes Practice Dummy with their Thunder Kick for 0 points of smashing damage! 2019-06-29 11:57:21 Genin: HIT Practice Dummy! Your Storm Kick power had a 95.00% chance to hit, you rolled a 87.34. 2019-06-29 11:57:21 Genin: Genin hits Practice Dummy with a Storm Kick for 0 points of smashing damage! 2019-06-29 11:57:23 Genin: HIT Practice Dummy! Your Crane Kick power had a 95.00% chance to hit, you rolled a 63.06. 2019-06-29 11:57:23 Genin: Genin smashes Practice Dummy with their Crane Kick for 0 points of smashing damage! 2019-06-29 11:57:23 Genin: Genin knocks Practice Dummy off their feet with their Crane Kick. 2019-06-29 11:57:25 Genin: HIT Practice Dummy! Your Shuriken power had a 95.00% chance to hit, you rolled a 77.30. 2019-06-29 11:57:25 Genin: Genin hits Practice Dummy with a Shuriken for 0 points of lethal damage! 2019-06-29 11:57:27 Genin: HIT Practice Dummy! Your Shuriken power had a 95.00% chance to hit, you rolled a 91.34. 2019-06-29 11:57:27 Genin: Genin hits Practice Dummy with a Shuriken for 0 points of lethal damage! 2019-06-29 11:57:28 Genin: HIT Practice Dummy! Your Thunder Kick power had a 95.00% chance to hit, you rolled a 74.27. 2019-06-29 11:57:28 Genin: Genin strikes Practice Dummy with their Thunder Kick for 0 points of smashing damage! 2019-06-29 11:57:31 Genin: HIT Practice Dummy! Your Storm Kick power had a 95.00% chance to hit, you rolled a 46.27. 2019-06-29 11:57:31 Genin: Genin hits Practice Dummy with a Storm Kick for 0 points of smashing damage! 2019-06-29 11:57:32 Genin: HIT Practice Dummy! Your Shuriken power had a 95.00% chance to hit, you rolled a 46.30. 2019-06-29 11:57:32 Genin: Genin hits Practice Dummy with a Shuriken for 0 points of lethal damage! 2019-06-29 11:57:34 Genin: HIT Practice Dummy! Your Thunder Kick power had a 95.00% chance to hit, you rolled a 36.00. 2019-06-29 11:57:34 Genin: Genin strikes Practice Dummy with their Thunder Kick for 0 points of smashing damage! 2019-06-29 11:57:35 Genin: HIT Practice Dummy! Your Crane Kick power had a 95.00% chance to hit, you rolled a 65.92. 2019-06-29 11:57:35 Genin: Genin smashes Practice Dummy with their Crane Kick for 0 points of smashing damage! 2019-06-29 11:57:38 Genin: HIT Practice Dummy! Your Shuriken power had a 95.00% chance to hit, you rolled a 5.95. 2019-06-29 11:57:38 Genin: Genin hits Practice Dummy with a Shuriken for 0 points of lethal damage! 2019-06-29 11:57:39 Genin: HIT Practice Dummy! Your Thunder Kick power had a 95.00% chance to hit, you rolled a 57.53. 2019-06-29 11:57:39 Genin: Genin strikes Practice Dummy with their Thunder Kick for 0 points of smashing damage! 2019-06-29 11:57:39 Genin: You disorient Practice Dummy with your Thunder Kick! 2019-06-29 11:57:41 Genin: MISSED Practice Dummy!! Your Shuriken power had a 95.00% chance to hit, you rolled a 98.86. 2019-06-29 11:57:43 Genin: HIT Practice Dummy! Your Storm Kick power was forced to hit by streakbreaker. 2019-06-29 11:57:43 Genin: Genin hits Practice Dummy with a Storm Kick for 0 points of smashing damage! 2019-06-29 11:57:46 Genin: HIT Practice Dummy! Your Shuriken power had a 95.00% chance to hit, you rolled a 57.10. 2019-06-29 11:57:46 Genin: Genin hits Practice Dummy with a Shuriken for 0 points of lethal damage! Unlike the howler wolf, the genin attacks 33 times in one minute, or about 50% more often. Admittedly the genin have more attacks, but theirs are: Thunder Kick (3s cd) Shuriken (4s cd) Storm Kick (6s cd) (trained) Shuriken (6s cd) (trained) Crane Kick (8s cd) (kuji) Exploding Shuriken (16s cd) (kuji) It seems like there's no baked-in animation delay for the ninjas, as they don't spend much time just staring at their target. Given that the beast mastery set was the last one they came out with, and didn't really get much tweaking before the game went down, it's not surprising that it might be a bit more glitchy than the other sets.

I just ran a test of my fully upgraded howler wolf attacking a practice dummy on the test server. Here's the combat log, for a one-minute timeframe (I removed the ticks of bleed damage from the log): 2019-06-29 11:12:16 Howler Wolf: HIT Howler Wolf! Your Wild Charge power is autohit. 2019-06-29 11:12:16 Howler Wolf: Howler Wolf HITS you! Wild Charge power was autohit. 2019-06-29 11:12:16 Howler Wolf: Howler Wolf begins a Wild Charge boosting their damage and movement speed. 2019-06-29 11:12:17 Howler Wolf: HIT Practice Dummy! Your Feral Charge power had a 95.00% chance to hit, you rolled a 68.09. 2019-06-29 11:12:17 Howler Wolf: Howler Wolf bashes Practice Dummy with their Feral Charge for 0 points of Smashing damage and reduces their defense! 2019-06-29 11:12:18 Howler Wolf: Howler Wolf knocks Practice Dummy off their feet with their Feral Charge! 2019-06-29 11:12:20 Howler Wolf: HIT Practice Dummy! Your Vicious Bite power had a 95.00% chance to hit, you rolled a 52.10. 2019-06-29 11:12:20 Howler Wolf: Howler Wolf shreds Practice Dummy with their Vicious Bite for 0 points of Lethal damage! 2019-06-29 11:12:21 Howler Wolf: Howler Wolf lets out an howl bolstering the damage of nearby beast allies! 2019-06-29 11:12:26 Howler Wolf: HIT Practice Dummy! Your Maiming Bite power had a 95.00% chance to hit, you rolled a 59.88. 2019-06-29 11:12:26 Howler Wolf: Howler Wolf shreds Practice Dummy with their Maiming Bite for 0 points of Lethal damage and reduces their movement speed and defense! 2019-06-29 11:12:29 Howler Wolf: HIT Practice Dummy! Your Vicious Bite power had a 95.00% chance to hit, you rolled a 89.35. 2019-06-29 11:12:29 Howler Wolf: Howler Wolf shreds Practice Dummy with their Vicious Bite for 0 points of Lethal damage! 2019-06-29 11:12:31 Howler Wolf: HIT Practice Dummy! Your Feral Charge power had a 95.00% chance to hit, you rolled a 0.43. 2019-06-29 11:12:31 Howler Wolf: Howler Wolf bashes Practice Dummy with their Feral Charge for 0 points of Smashing damage and reduces their defense! 2019-06-29 11:12:31 Howler Wolf: Howler Wolf knocks Practice Dummy off their feet with their Feral Charge! 2019-06-29 11:12:33 Howler Wolf: MISSED Practice Dummy!! Your Vicious Bite power had a 95.00% chance to hit, you rolled a 96.90. 2019-06-29 11:12:35 Howler Wolf: HIT Practice Dummy! Your Maiming Bite power was forced to hit by streakbreaker. 2019-06-29 11:12:35 Howler Wolf: Howler Wolf shreds Practice Dummy with their Maiming Bite for 0 points of Lethal damage and reduces their movement speed and defense! 2019-06-29 11:12:38 Howler Wolf: HIT Practice Dummy! Your Vicious Bite power had a 95.00% chance to hit, you rolled a 0.16. 2019-06-29 11:12:38 Howler Wolf: Howler Wolf shreds Practice Dummy with their Vicious Bite for 0 points of Lethal damage! 2019-06-29 11:12:39 Howler Wolf: Your Vicious Bite causes Practice Dummy to bleed for 0 points of lethal damage! 2019-06-29 11:12:41 Howler Wolf: HIT Practice Dummy! Your Feral Charge power had a 95.00% chance to hit, you rolled a 27.28. 2019-06-29 11:12:41 Howler Wolf: Howler Wolf bashes Practice Dummy with their Feral Charge for 0 points of Smashing damage and reduces their defense! 2019-06-29 11:12:41 Howler Wolf: Howler Wolf knocks Practice Dummy off their feet with their Feral Charge! 2019-06-29 11:12:44 Howler Wolf: HIT Practice Dummy! Your Maiming Bite power had a 95.00% chance to hit, you rolled a 53.07. 2019-06-29 11:12:44 Howler Wolf: Howler Wolf shreds Practice Dummy with their Maiming Bite for 0 points of Lethal damage and reduces their movement speed and defense! 2019-06-29 11:12:47 Howler Wolf: HIT Practice Dummy! Your Vicious Bite power had a 95.00% chance to hit, you rolled a 46.30. 2019-06-29 11:12:47 Howler Wolf: Howler Wolf shreds Practice Dummy with their Vicious Bite for 0 points of Lethal damage! 2019-06-29 11:12:51 Howler Wolf: HIT Practice Dummy! Your Feral Charge power had a 95.00% chance to hit, you rolled a 3.88. 2019-06-29 11:12:51 Howler Wolf: Howler Wolf bashes Practice Dummy with their Feral Charge for 0 points of Smashing damage and reduces their defense! 2019-06-29 11:12:51 Howler Wolf: Howler Wolf knocks Practice Dummy off their feet with their Feral Charge! 2019-06-29 11:12:53 Howler Wolf: HIT Practice Dummy! Your Maiming Bite power had a 95.00% chance to hit, you rolled a 71.94. 2019-06-29 11:12:54 Howler Wolf: Howler Wolf shreds Practice Dummy with their Maiming Bite for 0 points of Lethal damage and reduces their movement speed and defense! 2019-06-29 11:12:56 Howler Wolf: HIT Practice Dummy! Your Vicious Bite power had a 95.00% chance to hit, you rolled a 87.11. 2019-06-29 11:12:56 Howler Wolf: Howler Wolf shreds Practice Dummy with their Vicious Bite for 0 points of Lethal damage! 2019-06-29 11:13:01 Howler Wolf: HIT Practice Dummy! Your Feral Charge power had a 95.00% chance to hit, you rolled a 87.44. 2019-06-29 11:13:01 Howler Wolf: Howler Wolf bashes Practice Dummy with their Feral Charge for 0 points of Smashing damage and reduces their defense! 2019-06-29 11:13:04 Howler Wolf: HIT Practice Dummy! Your Maiming Bite power had a 95.00% chance to hit, you rolled a 19.83. 2019-06-29 11:13:04 Howler Wolf: Howler Wolf shreds Practice Dummy with their Maiming Bite for 0 points of Lethal damage and reduces their movement speed and defense! 2019-06-29 11:13:06 Howler Wolf: HIT Practice Dummy! Your Vicious Bite power had a 95.00% chance to hit, you rolled a 77.65. 2019-06-29 11:13:06 Howler Wolf: Howler Wolf shreds Practice Dummy with their Vicious Bite for 0 points of Lethal damage! 2019-06-29 11:13:11 Howler Wolf: HIT Practice Dummy! Your Feral Charge power had a 95.00% chance to hit, you rolled a 19.21. 2019-06-29 11:13:11 Howler Wolf: Howler Wolf bashes Practice Dummy with their Feral Charge for 0 points of Smashing damage and reduces their defense! 2019-06-29 11:13:13 Howler Wolf: HIT Practice Dummy! Your Maiming Bite power had a 95.00% chance to hit, you rolled a 77.09. 2019-06-29 11:13:13 Howler Wolf: Howler Wolf shreds Practice Dummy with their Maiming Bite for 0 points of Lethal damage and reduces their movement speed and defense! 2019-06-29 11:13:16 Howler Wolf: HIT Practice Dummy! Your Vicious Bite power had a 95.00% chance to hit, you rolled a 42.91. 2019-06-29 11:13:16 Howler Wolf: Howler Wolf shreds Practice Dummy with their Vicious Bite for 0 points of Lethal damage! In one minute, it does 21 things, so acting about every 2.8 seconds or so. There are some very odd patches of "dead time" where it's literally doing nothing, even though abilities aren't on cooldown. It looks like not so much like the pet is spending too much time casting buffs (because it's not), it's that there is some odd, baked-in downtime to its attack chain. Like bleed ticks prevent it from attacking again, or the animation cycle for the abilities is set to have several extra seconds where it has to wait for the "animation" to end before it can do anything else. Now I'm curious, and going to test some of the other pets, to see if they have this same oddity.

This is either misinformed, or an attempt at hyperbole. They don't spend anywhere NEAR 30% of their time buffing/debuffing. It may seem that way because they ALL have buffs and debuffs, but here's the thing ... they stack, and each one is only using one buff per minute typically. The wolves' howl ability is a 25% damage buff. If they all howl, that's +75% damage for 20 seconds. Combined with pack mentality stacks, the wolves can massively increase the damage output of the entire pack. I honestly think they can outdamage the ninjas on single targets, though I'd have to do some real testing. But, here's the list of the wolves' powers: Vicious Bite -- 3s cooldown Wild Charge -- 90s cooldown, +33% damage to self, +100% run speed, +12 immobilize prot for 20s Maiming Bite -- 6s cooldown (Train Beasts) Howl -- 60s cooldown, +24% damage, +7.5% to-hit to other beasts for 15s (Tame Beasts) Feral Charge -- 8s cooldown (Tame Beasts) Growl -- 45s cooldown, -10% damage, -5% to hit to enemies (Alpha Wolf) (Train Beasts) Lick Wounds -- 60s cooldown, self heal (Alpha Wolf) (Tame Beasts) So their general attack cycle is going to be to pop their buffs, charge in, and start attacking. Every 60s they'll rebuff. In those 60s, they'll likely get off somewhere around 14-16 Vicious Bites, Wild Charge, 7-8 Maiming Bites, and 4-5 Feral Charges. The lionesses are similar, but instead of a debuff, they get a stun instead (on a 120s cooldown), and their attack cycle is 3s, 5s, 8s for their attacks, so they'll generally be spending about 95% of their time attacking. So instead of "30% of their cycle uselessly buffing", they spend two seconds out of 45-60. Or about 3-4%. You seem to have added a zero from somewhere.

One thing I'd love to see in CoX-2 would be a revamped alignment system. Instead of just picking to start a hero, or a villain, you would start out neutral, as an unknown vigilante. As you did missions (either heroic or villainous) you'd start getting a reputation as either side. As you gained more rep as a hero, you'd start getting bigger and more important missions, invited to join superhero groups (kind of like the little Shining Stars story arc early on), and the like. As a villain, you'd be approached by villainous organizations wanting to hire you as muscle, or to do jobs for them, and eventually you'd gain enough infamy to start up your own villainous organization (if you so desire), etc. Either side COULD choose to dabble in missions that would sway them towards the other side. For instance a villain might choose to stop a bank robbery (perhaps for nefarious reasons), or a hero could pull something shady (the ends justify the means, perhaps), and their reputation would shift. Instead of just "do 10 alignment missions and you can change", the severity of what you did would determine how much rep/infamy you'd gain/lose. If you were a true, noble hero, pulling something really black-hearted and evil would make you lose more points than something simple, for instance. Or if you were a mustache-twirling scoundrel, doing heroic deeds would make other villains start to see you as a traitor, or a hero in disguise. You could come up with all sorts of alignment missions that would depend on drifting one way or another, have factions react to you based on your standing (and how it's shifting), etc. Could be a lot of fun.

Serum definitely needs to be reworked. Of course, so do several of the mastermind 18th level powers, to bring them more in line with the sets that perform well. But lowering the cooldown of the commando's Full Auto and LRM Rocket would go a long way towards balancing Mercenary damage, and give the commando a better attack cycle. As it is right now, he basically drops his two 'big attacks' and then turns into a tier-1 pet with more health.